20 Cooking Techniques and Tools You Secretly Can't Explain

If you’ve ever attempted to follow a recipe or watch a cooking show you know what it’s like to come across a term or tool you’ve heard before, but only kinda-sorta-maybe know what it means. It can be frustrating to finally work up the energy to make something, only to be tripped up by jargon that makes you wonder whether you’re supposed to heat something, cool something, or chop it into tiny pieces.

Sure, being able to drop “brunoise” and “confit” casually in conversation sounds pretty impressive—especially if you can pronounce them correctly—but it’s even cooler if you know what they mean, as well as how to actually apply them.

Study this list of 20 common kitchen tools and techniques so that you won’t have to rely on your iPhone for the definition of truss next time your hands are wrist-deep in a chicken.

Clarify

What it is: This technique removes water, milk solids, and other impurities from liquids such as melted butter and a variety of stocks through the process of heating. The impurities rise to the top and are then skimmed off, leaving behind a product that is cleaner looking with a longer shelf life and higher smoke point.

Where it's used: Most often, this technique is applied to butter in both Indian and French cooking. Known as ghee in Indian recipes, it is often drizzled on various flatbreads and rice dishes. Clarified butter also pairs well with lobster, especially in this recipe where it is guzzied up with lemon zest.

Confit

What it is: Pronounced con-fee, the term originates from confire—the French word for preserve. The technique can be applied to meat, fruit, and vegetables. In the case of fruit, it is done with a highly concentrated sugar syrup, while with meat and vegetables, it is done with pure fat. The food is cooked slowly and then submerged in either the sugar syrup or fat, which creates a nearly impenetrable barrier to bacteria. In the case of meat, confit also often implies that the meat is cooked in it's own rendered fat, before being stored and served.
How it's used: Most often, you'll find the term paired with duck or goose. This makes sense, seeing as the technique originated in southwest France, where duck is a popular dish. Here's how to make duck confit at home.

Chiffonade

What it is: Of all the fancy knife skills, this one is the simplest. It's an easy way to slice herbs and leafy vegetables into long, thin strips.

How it's used: This technique is most often used in salads and for garnishes. Simply stack herb or vegetable of choice, roll up, and slice into thin long ribbons.

Scald

What it is: To scald is to heat a liquid (most commonly dairy) in a saucepan until it almost boils.
How it's used: This process used to be vital in bread making to denature proteins that interfere with the growth of yeast. It is often found, however, in recipes for custards, sauces, and puddings because it helps cut down on cooking time.

Julienne

What it is: Another notable knife skill worth having, to julienne is to cut food—most commonly vegetables—into long, thin, even strips (also known as matchsticks).

How it's used: The julienne cut is pleasing to the eye and vegetables—especially carrots and cucumbers—are often cut in this method when they are used as a garnish, in salads, or part of a stir fry. It also makes for a beatiful looking slaw, such as this one from Leite's Culinaria.

Brunoise

What it is: Pronounced brunh-wahz. This is a basic knife cut where a julienne is turned a quarter turn and then diced again to form small cubes that are typically 1/8 in. x 1/8 in. x 1/8 in. in size.
How it's used: Vegetables cut in this size are typically used to garnish soups. The cut is also commonly used in fine salsas and stuffings, as well as in recipes where neat and even presentation is key.

Dutch Oven

What it is: A Dutch oven is a heavy cooking pot with a tightly fitting lid, which happens to be a very useful piece of cooking equipment. They are often made from cast iron, a material which takes a long time to get hot, but retains heat for a lengthy amount of time.

How it's used: Since they retain heat so well, Dutch ovens are often used to braise dishes as well as cook soups and stews.

Microplane

What it is: Essentially a long mini handheld grater, a microplane has photo-etched blades that makes it perfect for zesting and ultrafine grating.

How it's used: Microplanes are most commonly used to zest citrus, but they're also handy to finely grate cheeses.

Food Mill

What it is: This cooking accesory is formed like a bowl, has a bottom plate with holes like a colander, and it's crank fitted with a blade. A food mill is used to grind and purée foods.

How it's used: It bridges the gap between a sieve and a potato ricer and is often used to remove seeds from cooked tomatoes or make some seriously creamy mashed potatoes.

Deglaze

What it is: Deglazing is a useful technique where browned food residue in a pan is dissolved and removed in order to form a sauce.
How it's used: The browned bits at the bottom of a pan are often flavor-packed drippings from meat that has been cooked in the pan. Rather than getting rid of all that flavor, chefs often deglaze the pan by adding wine, stocks, or other liquids in order to create a pan sauce. Try your hand at this chicken and pan sauce recipe.

Bouquet-Garni

What it is: French for "garnished boquet", it is a bundle of herbs tied together with string that is used in the cooking process but removed prior to consumption.

How it's used: Bouquet-Garni are often used to add flavor to stocks, stews, and soups. While there is no set recipe, thyme, bay leaf, or rosemary are commonly found in the bouquets.

Render

What it is: This is a culinary term that means to melt hard animal fat, fat which is often later used in other cooking processes. The fat is slowly cooked until it is melted and then strained of impurities.

How it's used: There are an incredible amount of uses for rendered fat, especially fat rendered from everyone's favorite food&emdash;bacon. Add rendered bacon fat to salad dressing for an amazing vinagrette or drizzle it into mayonnaise for a smoky touch. Also worth noting: cook potatoes in rendered duck fat for the crispiest spuds that will ever grace your plate.

Truss

What it is: This is a method of tying up poultry with kitchen twine so that the wings and the legs stay close to the body. Due to the bird being more compact, trussing ensures a more evenly cooked end product.

How it's used: Trussing is common when roasting a whole chicken or turkey in the oven. It's a technique worth learning because not only does a trussed bird cook better, it looks more attractive once out of the oven.

Emulsion

What it is: An emulsion is a perfect example of when science meets cooking. It's essentially a mixture of two liquids that would not normally mix together, such as oil and vinegar.

How it's used: A vinagrette is the most common temporary emulsion, where if left to sit around, the ingredients would seperate again. More permant emulsions include mayonnaise and hollandaise sauce.

Blanch

What it is: Most commonly a technique used when cooking vegetables, blanching is a process where a food is briefly immersed in boiling water (or sometimes, fat) and then shocked in a cold water bath to stop the cooking.

How it's used: Often times, people will blanch vegetables to enhance their natural color before adding them to a dish. Tomatoes are often blanched in an effort to remove their skins, while kale is blanched to remove the leafy green's natural bitterness.

Blind Bake

What it is: It is the process of baking a pie crust or any other pastry without the filling. Typically, this is done by topping the pie crust with pie-weights to ensure the crust retains its shape while baking.

How it's used: This process is most commonly used when baking pies in which the filling is unbaked, such as pudding, ice cream, or cream pies. It also helps prevent pie crust from becoming soggy from the filling.

Proofing

What it is: A term most often used by professional bakers, proofing is the final dough-rise step before the dough goes into the oven. It's the specific rest period where the yeast is fermenting to help leaven the dough.
How it's used: This step most commonly happens when whipping up yeast baked goods such as bread, rolls, and croissants.

Maceration

What it is: Not to be confused with "marination", maceration is a process in which food (most often fruits and vegetables) are softened and broken up using a liquid. In the case of dried or preserved fruits, this is done by soaking them in a liquid (often rum) in which the fruits absorb the flavor the macerating liquid. The process for fresh fruits is much simpler since they are often sprinkled with a little bit of sugar and left to sit and release their own juices.

How it's used: Macerated fruits are often added to various cakes and other desserts for their added flavor and softness. Macerated berries also make for a great ice cream topping.

Chinois

What it is: It is, in essence, a concical sieve with a an extremely fine mesh.

How it's used: A chinois is used to produce a very smooth texture in custards, sauces, purees, and soups. Alternatively, It is used to dust pastry and fruit with a fine layer of confectioner's sugar.

Sous-Vide

What it is: French for "under vacuum", this is a method where food is cooked in air-tight plastic bags placed in a temperature controlled water bath. The purpose of this technique is to cook the item longer, at a lower temperature, so that it will cook evenly and the outside will not become overdone. Sous-viding results in jucier food.

How it's used: These machines are commonly found in the kitchens of high end restaurants throughout the world. Many people prefer a sous-vide piece of meat for it's tenderness and juiciness, especially in the case of steak. The technique has become so popular that there are machines available for the home cook at relatively affordable prices.

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